


all I want is to be home

by onyourleft084



Category: X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: AU, Cherik - Freeform, Fix-it fic, M/M, Post X-Men: Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:54:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23427328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onyourleft084/pseuds/onyourleft084
Summary: Magneto leaves. But it's Erik who comes back.
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier
Kudos: 55





	all I want is to be home

"Goodbye, Professor."

"Goodbye, old friend."

Erik leaves. Or rather, he doesn't stay. Charles doesn't make him. In fact, he should have known. There are things his friend has to work out by himself, and the last thing he needs is another mind distracting his.

So he lets him go. Erik walks out with a small smile-- it seems to erase all those years of resentment and regret, just like that-- and walks out the double doors with a straight back, and the last thing Charles thinks before he's distracted by the youngsters' training session is that he couldn't be more handsome.

* * *

Erik wanders. He travels the United States, and though there's no shame or fear or danger in being Erik Lehnsherr, he uses fake names anyway. And still tries to find out who he is.

He tries to go back to Europe. He makes it to Poland and drags himself, step by step, to the places where he buried his family.

The house is just the same, almost like Magda has popped out to see a friend or go to the market, or Nina is playing with her own friends in the forest.

Erik stumbles in the doorway. _It's too much._

_I thought going home was going to fix this. But this isn't home. I want to go home._

The thought follows him around across Switzerland, Belgium, France. He's in a hotel in Paris staring up at the ceiling when he finally musters the courage to face his own feelings.

Home, it seems, was never a place. It has always been a person.

* * *

Charles watched Erik walk out the door with his back straight and proud and a small smile that almost completely made up for the past twenty years. He smiled back and wished him well.

A year goes by, easy enough to bear. There's a school to run and youngsters to teach and people to protect, and Charles throws himself into it, all caught up in the hope and the fun and the promise. And he doesn't seek out his old friend, not even among the multitudes of white lights in Cerebro.

And then on a bright spring morning, Charles feels a familiar consciousness on the fringes of his own mind approach the mansion, less than three minutes before Scott comes charging into his office.

"Yes?" Charles says, even though he thinks he already knows.

"It's him," the boy replies, breathless.

And it is, indeed.

The man standing on the doorstep stands differently, more at peace than Charles remembers, but it's him all the same. When Charles brings his wheelchair to a stop at the top of the steps Erik looks up and takes off his sunglasses and those eyes are just as Charles remembers them. But brighter.

"Hello, Professor."

"Hello, old friend." Charles swallows. "You came back. I thought you went--"

"Home?" Erik chuckles. "I thought I was going to, but I was wrong. I know now...this is home. You-- you are home." His long legs bring him swiftly over the steps, right in front of Charles, "I won't stay if you don't want me to, but if you let me, I promise, I won't leave." His hand finds Charles', holds it tight like a lifeline.

Charles pulls.

Erik stumbles all over him inelegantly, his yelp of surprise muffled by Charles' lips on his. They tense and then they relax and Erik gives in. He lets Charles kiss him, taste him, clings onto him with the desperation of a man who has lost everything. Charles understands. He always has.

And although the kiss ends, they linger, faces still pressed close and Erik half-kneeling at Charles’ side. He thinks this is perfect. He thinks this is crazy. He thinks he doesn’t need to leave now.

Charles says, “Will you come inside?”

Erik sniffs, and smiles, and nods. “Yes, please.”

**Author's Note:**

> I haven’t written for Marvel in a couple of years, but found this fic lurking in my documents,,.and it was completed. Completed to satisfaction.
> 
> This was meant to take place immediately after X-Men: Apocalypse, that’s how long this fic has been waiting to be published 😅


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